space Press Releases, News Stories

by Charlie Angus, HighGrade Magazine

The OFA is asking the Province to place a moratorium on any new PCB incineration licenses until the impact of PCB burning has been thoroughly investigated.

John Bennett, CEO of Bennett Environmental, was clearly taken off guard by this news. Speaking from his office in Vancouver, Bennett said, "I don't know why they'd be concerned. They must not understand what we are doing."

Jack Wilkinson, President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, says the motion was drafted specifically in response to Bennett's plans for Kirkland Lake.

"Our concern is that there are alternative methods of onsite disposal for handling PCBs with technology that may be better than incineration. Why would you truck PCBs 600 or 800 kilometres, or all the way from Japan, to Kirkland Lake when there are risks associated with transportation? Why bring this risk factor through farm country?"

A profile of Bennett by Broadmark Capital Corporation, gives a hint of just how widespread this transportation could be: "Bennett's low prices and favoured solution cause customers to ship contaminated soils from as far away as Mexico."

Fighting the Farmers

The OFA's position has once again put regional farmers at loggerheads with the Kirkland Lake business community. For the last ten years, the rich dairy and grain growing region of central Temiskaming has been fighting an attempt to turn the abandoned Adams Mine near Kirkland Lake into one of North America's largest dumps.

Farmers are worried about groundwater contamination from the proposed dump. The Adams Mine is a series of pits sunk deep in the water table. Farmers say the same water that runs through the pit walls runs into their groundwater aquifers. The dump proponent, Notre Development, is not planning on placing any kind of protective liners in the pit.

Opposition to the dump has hardened feelings in the region. While the farmers remain angry about the dump, the Town of Kirkland Lake is going full steam ahead with plans to attract other waste disposal operations. Jack Wilkinson says the incinerator plan is part of the ongoing struggle.

"I think there's a frustration over the way the dump was handled because farmers' concerns over water and safety was just pooh poohed by everyone. Now we have another environmental disposal site that we believe has some risk attached to it, and once again we're being dismissed with a 'what's wrong with you people.'"

Since Trans Cycle Industries moved to Kirkland Lake in 1997 to set up a PCB recycling centre (see PCBs'R'Us HighGrader September/October 1999) Kirkland Lake has been promoting an industrial park on Archer Drive as an "Environmental Park" for waste disposal operations.

If all goes according to plan, Bennett will be neighbours alongside TCI and a proposed tire recycling/burning plant. ("Don't say burning," cautions John Bennett, "It gets people upset. The tires are broken down in a heat process.")

Kirkland Lake Mayor Richard Denton has been the front man of this new "environmental solutions" initiative. An amiable family physician, Denton was ironically elected because of his opposition to the Adams Mine dump. Critics now liken him to the Mr. Magoo of toxic waste.

"When Kirkland Lake does well, the whole region will do well," says Dr. Denton in hopes of calming the neighbouring communities.

Jack Wilkinson isn't mollified. "I can't comment on why Kirkland Lake has decided to become the dump site of North America from PCBs to landfills. That's their choice. But the farmers have a right to have an opinion on something that may have a risk of impacting on them. The proposals being put forward by the Kirkland Lake business community could have an impact on our way of life."

An article posted on the Bennett homepage (Waste Anti's Rile Council) dismisses the farmers' position: "Councillor Bill Enouy suggested that everyone is entitled to an opinion but he questioned the motives of the agricultural community in the south part of the district. 'They never back anything that we do.'"

OFA President Jack Wilkinson maintains, however, that their motive should be obvious.

"If our farmland and our water is any way hindered we will have lost our entire productive base. Farmers don't just move on when their asset base is lost. We're talking about land that has taken generations to get to a productive level. If something goes wrong, who's going to be standing around picking up the tab for it? We don't believe we should be subjected to needless risk."

Fighting the Pamphlets

John Bennett clearly doesn't want to be drawn into a fight with the area's dairy farmers. "People need to look at the benefits of what we are doing. We are a clean company. All the companies who are joining us in Kirkland Lake are clean companies."

At the heart of Bennett's operation is a dual chamber thermal oxidizing unit. The unit is designed to burn off PCBs and other organic compounds that may have been discharged into soil, bricks or concrete.

Bennett currently operates a similar plant in St. Ambroise, in the Sagueney region of Quebec. The plant, Recupere Sol, is half the size of the proposed Kirkland Lake operation.

"We operate at ten times the efficiency required," says Bennett of Recupere Sol. "We have never had any problems whatsoever with the unit."

This position is being countered by the Temiskaming Environmental Action Coalition (TEAC) -a local environmental organization. TEAC members have distributed a pamphlet throughout the region attacking PCB incineration technology.

Bennett says the campaign is unfair. "The only thing our environmental friends have been able to dig up are peripheral matters."

Those peripheral matters include a number of run-ins with the Ministry of Environment in Quebec:

* Notice of violation for storing dangerous waste (Aug. 1 1997). The Ministry noted "the level of contaminants in the air inside the storage building" and stated the "ventilation filtration was not adequate."

* Operating crushing equipment without proper authorization (Feb. 26, 1999)

* five violations for infractions noted on July 27, 1999.

Numerous articles in the local paper Le Quotidien note troubles at the plant including:

* "A hundred tonnes of toxic material in the form of cement blocks contaminated with PCBs have been stored illegally by RS in St. Ambroise" (Jan 13. 1998)

* "Complaint Lodged Against Recupere Sol" - at issue were reports of black smoke emanating from the plant (Feb. 27, 1998),

* "Recupere Sol Faces Legal Action" (June 18, 1999).

Perhaps the biggest blow to the company's prestige in Quebec was the public resignation of Jean-Paul Bouchard, the plant's Director of Operations . Le Quotidien noted that Bouchard's resignation came as a big surprise because it was he "alone (who) endured the ferocious opposition of the citizens of St. Ambroise."

In a letter made public, Bouchard outlined his reasons for quitting the company. He stated his concern over the decision to restart operations at the plant even though Bouchard believed that "certain changes and checks" should have been made first. As well, he stated that "the employees had not received enough training."

Bouchard went on to speak about "several incidents, which, if we had modified the plant, none of them would have happened."

TEAC has been circulating these news stories in the Temiskaming region.

As well, they have been seeking out advice from PCB experts in the United States. One of them is Neil Carman, a former incinerator inspector for the state of Texas.

Speaking from his office in Austin, Texas, Mr. Carman (who now handles clean air campaigns for the Sierra Club) explains why he has become opposed to incineration of PCBs.

"The technology is inherently flawed. The incinerators run at very high temperatures and involve the burning of some very corrosive materials. With this kind of heat and stress equipment will break down and when that happens you will have fugitive gases."

Those gases, says Carman, include PCBs and dioxins. The chemicals then return to earth and bio accumulate in the food chain.

"Dioxins are a highly toxic group of organic compounds," explains Carmen. "I think the farmers have a real reason to be concerned. They don't want this showing up in their milk."

John Bennett, however, maintains that dioxins are not a part of the incineration process used by his company.

"You get more dioxins from (burning the chlorinated paper in) cigarettes that you do from our plant," he says, "And the people who come out to the meetings to complain about us smoke. It really annoys me."

John Bennett maintains that his system has conducted test burns that shows a 99.9999% efficiency rate.

Carman isn't impressed. "Here's the deal. A trial burn is like taking a brand new car from a dealer and boy does it run great. What you really have to do is to conduct stack testing during the everyday running of the plant."

Carman says there are alternative technologies on the market, including the Ontario-based company Eco Logic (see Where's the Logic -- HighGrader September/October 1999) that provide much less risk than incineration.

"Even though the state of the art incinerators have scrubbers, quench systems and all the bells and whistles, you will still have unburned PCBs and dioxins in the stack gases. As well, in the transportation, unloading and transfer of PCB liquids you will have leaks and these leaks will create fugitive gases."

John Bennett, however, says that people get upset about PCBs without knowing the full story. He says he doesn't understand why "people pick on PCBs, of all the things they can pick on."

As a former chief engineer with Monsanto, Bennett says he knows about PCBs. "We were the company that made them until we were stopped in 1977."

Good Neighbours

With the TCI situation drawing environmental heavyweights like Greenpeace into the issue, John Bennett is clearly worried about the potential fall out for his company. "I'm damned upset about this," he says, "They (TCI) are going to be our neighbours."

The TCI operation recycles PCB-contaminated metals and then has to ship out the PCB concentrates for incineration. Presently, the concentrates are shipped over 4,000 kilometres to the Swan Hills incinerator in Kirkland Lake.

With an incinerator right next door, won't it make sense to have Bennett simply add the concentrates to its feed of contaminated soils? No way, says John Bennett.

"Taking concentrates is not in our permit. We would not be applying for it."

However, a letter posted on the Bennett homepage from Elizabeth Denton, the wife of the mayor, claims a very different story:

When asked why he was considering Kirkland Lake, he (John Bennett) stated that Trans-Cycle Industries had invited him. He went on to state that since the PCB incineration facility at Swan Hills in Alberta was due to close within the next year, TCI would be looking for a new facility to dispose of its PCB sludge.

Mr. Bennett stated that the PCB sludge from TCI could easily be added to the contaminated soil that Bennett Environmental would be incinerating, and that the incineration could be done at the incineration facility that he would build here.

Mr. Bennett also stated that the treated incinerated soil would be alkali and would be perfect for using as a daily cover for the garbage at the Adam's Mine Bennett admits that he was indeed invited to the area by TCI but only because TCI is "trying to invite environmentally sensitive companies to the environmental park."

He is adamant that while Bennett and TCI will probably share laboratories and a common security system as neighbours, Bennett is not interested in the PCB concentrates presently bound for Swan Hills.

John Bennett says he is anxious to start construction of the plant by the fall. Just how much of a roadblock the farmers will put in his way remains to be seen.